New approach to electric-car battery cooling: immerse cells in coolant
Green Car Reportsfeedback@highgearmedia.com (Mark Stevenson)Dec 8, 2017
Regardless of how your vehicle is powered—whether it be an internal-combustion engine or a battery pack powering an electric motor—most powertrains have a common enemy: heat.

For Taipei-based XING Mobility, heat is a major concern for its high-performance Miss R model as its battery cells need to rapidly discharge to generate its maximum quoted output of 1,000 kilowatts (1,341-horsepower).

The more rapidly you discharge a battery, the more heat it generates—and XING believes it has a solution to keep its fast-discharging battery pack cool.

Instead of snaking coolant through lines and chambers within the battery pack's case, XING is taking a wholly different approach by immersing its cells in a non-conductive fluid with a high boiling point.

“The use of Novec Engineered Fluids to immersion-cool EV batteries is a breakthrough application, addressing the critical performance needs of the market in a new and disruptive way,” said 3M’s Michael Garceau to Charged EVs.

XING's batteries take the form of 42 lithium-ion-cell modules that can be put together to build larger battery solutions.

While XING plans to use the battery packs for its own vehicles, it said it will also sell the battery solutions to other OEMs looking for energy storage solutions.

READ MORE: Could water be the secret to faster electric-car battery technology?

“The industrial vehicle market is primed for a conversion to electric drivetrains due to functional needs, increasing emissions requirements and public noise reduction,” said XING co-founder and CTO Azizi Tucker.

"The XING Battery System is an opportune solution for small- to medium-volume vehicle makers, catering to a huge variety of shapes, sizes and power requirements.”

XING also plans to offer other off-the-shelf components for fledgling EV makers, such as torque-vectoring gearboxes, electric power kits, and magnetorheological dampers.

The company projects its Miss R model should be capable of sprinting to 100 km/h in 1.8 seconds, reaching 200 km/h in 5 seconds, and hitting a top speed of 270 km/h (168 mph).